This is a blog centering on Dr. Petrosino's course at The University of Texas at Austin entitled " EDC 365E Project Based Instruction in STEM Education." This is the capstone course in the UTeach Natural Sciences professional development sequence. It also serves as a forum for Dr. Petrosino's thoughts and ideas on Project Based Instruction and educational reform.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Class 18: 11/01/11-Legacy Cycle Work Day

Dr. Petrosino began class by discussing revisions to the syllabus. He pointed out some important dates, like the next class we would be reading critiques of PBI by Kirschner, because he did not want to present a non-problematic view of PBI, but instead present a balanced approach. The next week we will read a reply to this critique, and then there is another reply we will read, following this conversation. Thursday, we will be having a discussion about the Teaching Portfolio led by Prudie. He reminded us that we have resources available and can email any of the teaching team with questions. On 11/22, we may do something a little different; we may have a virtual class, open workday, or class as scheduled. He mentioned that we will talk about it more later, but they would try to accommodate people’s plans for Thanksgiving. The revised syllabus will be posted to Blackboard.

Dr. Petrosino then discussed the midterm grades, saying the average was a 78 for our class and an 81.5 for the afternoon class. He then reminded us that we still had about 50% of our grade left, so no one is in a position where they can’t get the grade they want. He also mentioned how the final exam grades are usually higher, because it is more essay oriented and the legacy cycles usually helps boost grades, as you can generally get a fair amount of credit if you meet the standards. He mentioned this to try to make sure no one panicked about their grades, as there were still lots of opportunities to raise grades.

We then had a workday for the rest of class. During this time, Dr. Petrosino mentioned that instead of thinking of an idea and trying to apply it to the standards we should instead look to the standards to think of an idea. He also brought up the difference between an introduction video and an anchor video. An introduction video is more inspirational and motivational. An Anchor video is theory laden, with embedded data.

About Me

Dr. Petrosino is a graduate of Columbia University's Teachers College (MA, 1990) and received his PhD from Vanderbilt University (1998). He completed a post-doc at the University of Wisconsin where he was a member of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science (NCISLA). In 1999 he accepted a Professorship at the University of Texas and received tenure in 2004. He holds the Elizabeth G. Gibb Endowed Fellowship in Mathematics Education. Dr. Petrosino has published over 20 peer reviewed journal articles, made over 100 national and international conference presentations and has supervised a dozen doctoral dissertations. He has received over 30 million dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and the McDonnel Foundation for Cognitive Studies. He is a founding professor of the nationally recognized UTeach Natural Sciences preservice teacher education program. From July 2007 to August 2009 he served as the Assistant to the Superintendent in the Hoboken School District.